Various products are made and then stored on hollow rolls. (By rolls, it is intended to include other similar items, such as reels, spools, and the like.) The size and/or weight of these products can make them unmanageable when it is desired to move them, such as for loading onto a truck to deliver them to a customer or for placing on a shelf to store them in inventory. Examples of such products are rolls of paper, plastic, fabric, wire, sheet metal, newsprint, and bales of hay.
A number of apparatus, many with retractable gripping members, have been designed to be inserted into the opening in the roll, reel, spool, and the like in order to maneuver these products. In effect, these apparatus allow the lifting and reorienting of anything having a central aperture, further examples being well casings and pipe tubing. The apparatus are colloquially known as core lifting apparatus.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,244, issued in 1987 to Cullen et al., shows a lift and reorienting apparatus for moving items having a central aperture, such as well casings and rolls of sheet metal. Projections 18 are the retractable gripping members in the apparatus. Also, the apparatus has a sleeve shoulder 34 for preventing it from going further into the central aperture than desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 621,380, issued in 1899 to Shoffner, shows a device for raising bailless buckets from wells. The device consists of a spirally-constructed dart which has arms pivoted thereto and which is adapted to be sunk into a well and withdrawn by means of a cord. Arms 8, 11 are the retractable gripping members of the device. U.S. Pat. No. 1,445,581, issued in 1923 to Fullop, shows a tool for removing well casings and the like. The tool has a pipe gripping section detachably associated with a supporting section, and both of the sections are hollow and arranged to house the controlling connections for the gripping members. Dogs 4 are the gripping members in the tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,495,409, issued in 1924 to Foster, shows a fishing tool consisting essentially of a tube suspended by a bail and having in its side walls a plurality of loosely fitting dogs, which are adapted to fall into contact with the rod or casing to be withdrawn during the lowering of the fishing tool into a well. Dogs 15 are the retractable gripping members in the tool. U.S. Pat. No. 1,540,566, issued in 1925 to Petree, shows a pipe extractor for removing pipes from wells. The extractor has a body portion and a shank portion. The body portion is larger than the shank portion, which is threaded at its upper end and forms a point at its bottom end. Dogs 17 are the retractable gripping members in the pipe extractor.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,020,561, issued in 1935 to McCullough, shows a spear and releasable hammer for use in oil or water wells, for movement of a pipe or casing. The pipe or casing engaging member is part of the jar, and the jarring action is imparted to the gripping member and then to the pipe or casing. Slips 14 are the retractable gripping members in the spear and releasable hammer. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 2,614,881, issued in 1952 to Holland, shows a well fishing tool for engaging a body such as a pipe lost in the well, and raising the pipe from the well. The fishing tool has at least one automatically operated gripping tongue for engaging the pipe. Thus, tongues 20 in the fishing tool are the retractable gripping members.
Of lesser interest is U.S. Pat. No. 3,163,228, issued in 1964 to Hayes. This patent shows a cable latching device for guiding and aligning equipment under water to a predetermined base, such as an offshore well which has been drilled and completed at a point adjacent the ocean floor. Dogs. 46, 47, are the retractable gripping members in the cable latching device. Also of lesser interest, U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,899, issued in 1986 to Hemingway, shows an apparatus for removing a liner cup from a golf hole. Wedges 9 are the retractable gripping members in the liner cup remover apparatus.